Archive for September, 2009

For the past few months, you may have noticed I have not posted every week, the way I used to. For one, I have vowed, sort of, to stop commenting on every last political notion that has come up–unlike the last two years when I commented on all the doings of the 2008 Presidential race–because how many times does one have to say the same thing over and over again (the system is rigged, therefore, disregard or get out of it as much as you can)? And how many times do I have to warn about a group I called THEM, but now can safely say “them” because “they” have already lost “their” control over when “they” will institute their stupid “new world order”? Illuminati? Folks, we are beyond worrying about those critters (but let Alex Jones and his ilk keep making big bucks keeping us fearing this crew…I mean, Hal “FBI” Turner was exposed; Alex “control the opposition” Jones is right around the corner). Every time I think about the validity and reliability of their “one world” everything I have to laugh. The corruption they are sowing is so all encompassing that the seeds of its own destruction are already built in. Since God creates evil (Isaiah 45), He controls it, not some idiot “illuminists”! What we really need to worry about is how we are going to deal with neighbors when what we ought to be preparing for what comes down, first, and then concern ourselves with BS local bureaucrats and petty Hitlers, second. Then again, the other reason I haven’t posted as much as I would like (and vowed I would) is because in the last two months, I have had headaches almost continually. It is very hard for me to work on the computer when headaches strike. But now I know why I’ve had three times the headaches I’ve had before, as I will explain.

The main reason–there are others but I don’t need to go into these here–for all the headaches turned out to be that our refrigerator was slowly dying, failing to keep our food cold and fresh. Without any notice, one night I looked to get some ice cream out of the freezer, and I noticed that the ice cream was melting! Two hours later, the ice cream was completely melted. Then I touched the milk in the frig and it was barely cool. But it wasn’t just possible bacteria build-up. The frig was on constantly and it was making ever louder whiny noises, which, along with stressing me out was giving me tinnitus like you wouldn’t believe. Plus, the weather was unstable. The headaches I was getting were not typical migraines which start at the temples. These began in the back of the right side of the head where stress headaches usually begin. Further, I know the frig going on the fritz was the primary cause because when we got out new frig early last week, the headaches pretty much disappeared. Was it the rapidly degraded food? The noise and tinnitus? Probably both. Further, when I have headaches like that I don’t take my usual daily mile-long walk, and that’s not good for my health, either.

I have learned just the other day that more and more “VIP” type folks are moving into this area. The Big Bend region is becoming more and more well known for its movie and music celebs: Tommy Lee Jones, the late Patrick Swayze, Mick Jagger, and various others own property out here amd have for years and in fact on occassion (such as the artsy-fartsy art festivals in nearby Marfa and Alpine) some of these folks come out and show themselves to us regular folks, no disguises, as if they feel comfortable enough among us. Now it turns out that former “high up mucky-mucks” in the federal and state governments are moving out here, and that a former Ambassardor to Mongolia and a few other places has bought property and intends to live in our mountain subdivision. “This guy knows things are gonna fall apart,” I was told.

So, are you, reader, prepared in case it does? I don’t know if things will “fall apart” or not, but like I always say, “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” In case you haven’t seen a comprehensive checklist of items you might want to have around if the worst happens, <a href=”http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/gillespie2.1.1.html”>here is a good start</a>.

In the <a href=”news090109.html”>previous newsletter</a> I made a case for practical “community action” with your neighbors, even if you have to resolve conflicts to do it. If there is a crisis, folks you don’t want your neighbors against you as well the rest of the world (you can read “the authorities” into this if you want). But that doesn’t mean giving him the key to your house, meaning your stored food, water, crisis supplies, and giving him license to take as much stored gasoline as he wants! Or letting him use your computer! It means being in a position to work with neighbors to get through whatever crisis hits.

Ideally you want the kind of neighbor we have, a former Libertarian Party guy who ran for some office years ago on the LP ticket, and a guy who knows Ron Paul: someone who you don’t have to worry about sneaking onto your property when your gone as long as he knows you won’t do the dame thing. Someone you have an unspoken understanding with. So what if you have neighbors who are busy bodies? We are not talking suburbia here, but we are not talking farms, either….six people per square mile stuff. We are talking subdivisions that happen to be in rural areas outside (usually) small towns. This one here encompasses about a seven miles radius and has about 50 full time families/individuals. Even so, there are those people who live in the more flat valley spots that are surrounded with neighbors (as opposed to us…we bought our place in a box canyon up higher, in a place where it would be unlikely to have neighbors on either side).

However, if you must buy land in very flat and desirable locations, a consequence might be that you will be surrounded by neighbors who might be live and let live or who might be busy bodies and gossipers, or who might want to borrow every tool you have and then you have to literally threaten to sue the guy unless he returns it. I never said you would escape jerks if you moved out to the country! Plus you might find one fine day that you have new neighbors…with six kids, seven dogs, eleven cats and fifteen clunkers sitting out on their front lawn…er, grassy areas by the road. Might remind you of one of my favorite “Simpsons” characters: “Some folk’l never eat a skunk, but then again some folk’l, like Cletus the slackjawed yokel…”

So. If you get those kinds of neighbors, don’t try to sue the SOBs or do what someone did out here: put out the eye of the neighbor’s goat. What you are going to have to do is go up to the head of the household and reach an understanding. Don’t go saying what he “ought to do” without some sort of compromise yourself, just because you’ve been “out here” for twenty years and he is the new guy. If the neighbor cats are pooping in your garden, don’t kill the critters, because cats are cats and that is what cats do. Cats ain’t dogs if you know what I mean. Deal with it. Take out that gun and shoot it in the air, not
at the cats. Maybe you can convince the neighbors to do whatever is possible to keep the cats in their property. Barking dogs? Noisy kids? Unsightly clunkers? Develop an understanding, and rue the day that you bought that flat place in the valley knowing you might someday have a bunch of neighbors surrounding you!

We don’t have ACORN (or HCAN or the SEIU) out here. Instead we have lots and lots of acorns falling out of oak trees. So what if it’s still summer? Seasons are weird in West Texas. We have the Dry Season and the Rainy Season (from July4 until sometime usually in September), with the rest of the year being in the Dry Season…except in certain El Nino years NOT followed by a La Nina! In 2004, for instance, it rained from May until the following February! We got 60 inches! Our main creek ran from June until the following April! But, back to why I brought up ACORN…

Folks in the community are “organizing” without ACORN telling us how to do it. Has nothing to do with “Town Hall” meetings, either. (And besides, our Rep., Ciro Rodriguez–the same Rep who voted no on the bailouts but will not support Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill–did his Town Hall meeting on HealthCare over the phone. I guess he saw what was coming, so he chickened out of the real deal. Didn’t want to speak in front of the gaggle of Ron Paul supporters that live out here and in Alpine–Dr. No has LOTS of support out here, I am delighted to say!). Considering this was a very divided community only ten years or more ago, this is quite an accomplishment.

Not only was this community the site of the “Republic of Texas” standoff in April-May, 1997, there was a lawsuit against many of the property owners who had stopped paying maintanence fees for one reason or another, mostly because of faulty land surveys and prior lawsuits. After the suit was settled in 2000, there was still a lot of bitterness over it, and it took a while for things to get back to normal and for people to bring themselves to speak to those on the opposite sides of the suit. For instance, I am now buddy-buddy with an elderly couple that I wouldn’t consider speaking to before the suit ended! Pretty much the bad vibes are gone out of this community, at least among full-time residents. This has allowed community groups to start doing things to help their neighbors.

From the very beginning of putting this site together, I have always insisted that if you are going to move out to the rural remote, especially full time, you must learn to get along with your neighbor! We are, I think, reaching the point where doing whatever it takes is going to be the only option. If things get as chaotic as some think they will (social upheaval, and the looting and crime that goes with it…or, on the other hand, the “Great Depression-like” destitution and begging in the streets type scenarios), wouldn’t you want to know that you can trust your neighbors not to steal that extra gas can you’ve been saving for emergencies? All part of the preparation, folks, preparation.